Trending Now

You are here

Cridersville plans to update village zoning

CRIDERSVILLE — Leaders of an area village sat down with a civil engineer to discuss questions dealing with their zoning.
Cridersville Village Council Planning Committee members met with Tony Schroeder, of Choice One Engineering, to discuss issues involving the zoning issues that have arose in the village.
Councilors are currently in the process of updating their zoning of the village, which were formed in the late 1990s.
When Schroeder was asked how they should handle specific situations, Schroeder said it revolves around the village’s image and make-up.
“It’s all about your personality,” Schroeder said, referring to the village. “It comes down to what you want and what everyone wants.”
Schroeder suggested taking different portions of the village, and dividing it up, and put different zoning on different districts in the village.
“You can come up with different zoning districts,” Schroeder said.
Village Solicitor Jim Hearn said that the village needs to look at the community, and look at various sections, and put a zoning code on a specific area to preserve that structure — especially in the event of a natural disaster.
“You can’t meet everyone,” Schroeder said. “Go through and survey and decide on the area and what meets its (the area’s) needs.”
An example that was given during the meeting was to put a zoning district on Main Street, so if something happens to a house, the owner could rebuild a new, suitable house that is under the new zoning code, and this code may be different compared to a different part of the village. Then Main Street could have its own zoning district in the village, which may be different than other zoning districts.
The village of Cridersville currently has three different zoning districts.
Mayor Lorali Myers said that there are concerns that brought the issue of updating the zoning codes to the village’s attention.
“This is an opportunity to look at and make adjustments,” Myers said.
Myers said that when the zoning codes were worked on in the 1990s, that they would have never known that a natural disaster would hit the village — such as the tornado that damaged and destroyed homes last October.
“We want to put more meat in here to help make decisions for the future,” Myers said.
Councilor Beverly Wood was part of the group that helped put together the zoning for the village in the 1990s and said that the group hashed and rehashed the “what ifs.”
Schroeder said that the zoning document for the village is a very good document, but all the council members want to hit and clarify certain topics and update them.
“We need to examine closely not only what has been stated in ordinance, but what has not been stated,” Wood said on one of the points the village wants to target while updating this document.
A few other updates that the village is looking at revising is the issue on corner lots, and to determine which side of house is the front, and to define a side set-back, parking guidelines, updates regarding types of building materials and revising permits, to name a few.
The village will take Schroeder’s advice and look at aerial views of the village, along with working with updating the written zoning records, to make sure everything is up to date, and clarified.